Customers

There are at least 5 models for explaining customer behavior used by marketers. Whilst they are condradictory they are not mutually exclusive. It may be helpful to think of them in Newtonian terms as each contributing conflicting forces which interact to determine the direction of buying behavior.

The models include:

The rational, economic model.
"The idea of the rational customer is based largely on the writtings of theorists in economics. In their attempt to understand how a customer allocates his resources of disposable income,they propose a model wherby the customer seeks to maximise his satisfaction or "utility" as return for payment.

This approach to customer behaviour suggests that choice behaviour is determined by the utility derived from a purchase compared with the financial outlay necessary to acquire the item. The model ignores all the many non-price factors that marketing practitioners know to exist in given situations. One example of this is the economists' concept of the demand curve, which postulates that, in most situations, as the price of a product goes up, the demand for it will fall. This does indeed happen in many cases but there are many exceptions to this trend.

The Pavlovian learning model
According to this model of behaviour, learning is largely an associative process and most behaviour is conditioned by reward and punishment.

The modern versions of the Pavlovian model offer a number of insights useful to marketers. The model suggests, for example, that repetition and reinforcement are desirable attributes in advertising. In addition, it implies that in order to achieve its objectives, an advertisement must arouse strong drives in the customer, whether these are hunger, thirst, cold, pain or sex.

The Freudian psychoanalytic model
This model is well known in at least some of its aspects and is widely used by advertisers. Its basic thesis is that the individual human being is a divided kingdom, where behaviour rarely allows of a simple explanation. The individual maintains a precarious balance between emotion and rationality, between instinctive drives and socially acceptable behaviour.

Using this model, the marketer can construct his message so that it appeals to the parts of the psyche which are not accessible to the consciousness but which are still likely to determine behaviour. One disadvantage of this model, of course, is that it is difficult to make generalisations about any particular market segment. However, very effective advertising campaigns have been devised which appeal to the customer's private world of hopes, fears and dreams.

The social-psychological model
In this model, man is seen as primarily a social animal, open to influence from the broad culture in which he lives and from the sub-cultures with which he has chosen to identify.

In using this model, the marketer would draw on the importance to the individual's attitudes and behaviour, of culture, sub-cultures, reference groups (that is, social groups to which the individual relates in his or her behaviour) and face-to-face groups.

The organisational buyer model
The previous models concentrate on the drives, forces and influences which mould the individual customer. However, the organisational buyer (such as the purchasing agent) can be seen to respond to a rather different set of circumstances. These customers are buying not on their own behalf but on behalf of an organisation; their motivation, therefore, may be regarded as particularly complex.

This model suggests that organisational buyers are not impervious to personal appeals of the kind outlined earlier. However they are also concerned to meet the needs of the organisation as satisfactorily as they can. They are, therefore, open to a dual approach by the marketer... (This also applies to anyone buying on behalf of others eg their family and to doctors making prescribing decisons on behalf of their patients.)
- Wills et al (1980)

 

Wills G, Cheese J, Kennedy S, Rushton A. Introducing Marketing. London Pan 1980